Wiszard
Long Time Member
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- 11,241
Instead of Hunting region D for mule deer like we do most of the time, my dad wanted to hunt Whitetails for the first time in his life. He’s 78 and he doesn’t have many hunts left in him so I agreed to do the white tail thing. We researched units that offered both buck tags and doe tags so we both ended up drawing a 164 either sex Whitetail tag and a Whitetail doe tag each.
Basically, the research was talking to a few guys on monster muley‘s that have hunted the area before and calling the biologists for the area. Our hunt was scheduled for November 6 which was a little bit later in the season but everybody said that should be fine. They were roughly 8 walk-in areas that we were going to focus on and figured out of those options, it should be no problem finding Whitetails. That proved to be untrue. There was one piece of public land that we hunted the first two mornings and saw tons of mule deer, but couldn’t turn up any Whitetails. The evening hunts were spent checking out a walk-in area or two and trying to determine where all the Whitetails’s are. We never got that answer. The third evening of the hunt we were sitting in a cornfield, and a Whitetail doe popped out roughly 700 yards from us so we scooted around the field to drop the distance to about 200. From what I gather, my dad sent one right over the top of her back, and she was never seen again. That was very discouraging as she was the first Whitetail we had seen. The following morning we spotted 2 Whitetails, but they were not in an area that we could hunt.
That evening found us on the same walk in area as the night before, watching the same field of corn in hopes that we get a crack at another doe. As luck would have it, about five minutes before shooting light was over, a white tail pops out. Luckily, my dad was able to get it in his scope relatively quick and squeeze a shot off. I’m watching through my binoculars and I see the deer hunch up as if it was hit a little back. By this time I realized it was a buck and I did not want him to runoff so I asked my dad if I should put one in him? My dad said yes so I shot and he dropped like a ton of bricks.
We were ecstatic to say the least. We were more ecstatic the closer we got to him, because he just got bigger and bigger and bigger. The closer and closer we got, I just kept reiterating that he’s big, Dad… He’s a giant! My Dad finally got his hands on him and he was definitely bigger than we had expected.
I had contacted a couple meat processors before our trip so I had an idea of who to call in order to get the deer processed. I know that it was gonna be difficult because some were closed and we weren’t sure if the deer would be able to be processed within a day and a half. We didn’t want to wait long to get it processed. We figured we would need to quarter it and get it back home and take care of the meat there. Fortunately, we found a place in Hyattville who told us we could bring it in at 11 o’clock the next morning and it be done by 5 PM same day. $60 rush charge was all he was charging for the rush. We felt that was a great value and worth staying an extra day for.
Our trip was a total of six days and unfortunately, I would not do this trip again. Even though my Dad was able to kill a really good deer, I feel that the numbers of Whitetails are not there. Maybe if we had hunted three weeks earlier when the season opened, we might’ve seen more deer… I don’t know. When I spoke with the biologist about how many deer we were seeing, he told me that the blue tongue did do some damage to the deer in that area. Many of the walk-in areas that we walked did not have any deer sign whatsoever, which we thought was very strange. It’s not very often that I hunt an area that I figure I’ll never go back to, but this is one of those areas. I think the lack of deer will not allow me to take a chance on going back.
I want to thank the guys that helped me out with this hunt and gave me lots of solid information. I wish I could’ve met you in person Dave but maybe we’ll hook up next time we’re heading to region D.
I don’t know what my Dad‘s buck will score, but the numbers around 130 to 135 have been thrown out there. We had a taxidermist named Calvin Ferguson in St George do a European mount on him. Calvin does great work and we often stop by his place to have him do our skulls.
Basically, the research was talking to a few guys on monster muley‘s that have hunted the area before and calling the biologists for the area. Our hunt was scheduled for November 6 which was a little bit later in the season but everybody said that should be fine. They were roughly 8 walk-in areas that we were going to focus on and figured out of those options, it should be no problem finding Whitetails. That proved to be untrue. There was one piece of public land that we hunted the first two mornings and saw tons of mule deer, but couldn’t turn up any Whitetails. The evening hunts were spent checking out a walk-in area or two and trying to determine where all the Whitetails’s are. We never got that answer. The third evening of the hunt we were sitting in a cornfield, and a Whitetail doe popped out roughly 700 yards from us so we scooted around the field to drop the distance to about 200. From what I gather, my dad sent one right over the top of her back, and she was never seen again. That was very discouraging as she was the first Whitetail we had seen. The following morning we spotted 2 Whitetails, but they were not in an area that we could hunt.
That evening found us on the same walk in area as the night before, watching the same field of corn in hopes that we get a crack at another doe. As luck would have it, about five minutes before shooting light was over, a white tail pops out. Luckily, my dad was able to get it in his scope relatively quick and squeeze a shot off. I’m watching through my binoculars and I see the deer hunch up as if it was hit a little back. By this time I realized it was a buck and I did not want him to runoff so I asked my dad if I should put one in him? My dad said yes so I shot and he dropped like a ton of bricks.
We were ecstatic to say the least. We were more ecstatic the closer we got to him, because he just got bigger and bigger and bigger. The closer and closer we got, I just kept reiterating that he’s big, Dad… He’s a giant! My Dad finally got his hands on him and he was definitely bigger than we had expected.
I had contacted a couple meat processors before our trip so I had an idea of who to call in order to get the deer processed. I know that it was gonna be difficult because some were closed and we weren’t sure if the deer would be able to be processed within a day and a half. We didn’t want to wait long to get it processed. We figured we would need to quarter it and get it back home and take care of the meat there. Fortunately, we found a place in Hyattville who told us we could bring it in at 11 o’clock the next morning and it be done by 5 PM same day. $60 rush charge was all he was charging for the rush. We felt that was a great value and worth staying an extra day for.
Our trip was a total of six days and unfortunately, I would not do this trip again. Even though my Dad was able to kill a really good deer, I feel that the numbers of Whitetails are not there. Maybe if we had hunted three weeks earlier when the season opened, we might’ve seen more deer… I don’t know. When I spoke with the biologist about how many deer we were seeing, he told me that the blue tongue did do some damage to the deer in that area. Many of the walk-in areas that we walked did not have any deer sign whatsoever, which we thought was very strange. It’s not very often that I hunt an area that I figure I’ll never go back to, but this is one of those areas. I think the lack of deer will not allow me to take a chance on going back.
I want to thank the guys that helped me out with this hunt and gave me lots of solid information. I wish I could’ve met you in person Dave but maybe we’ll hook up next time we’re heading to region D.
I don’t know what my Dad‘s buck will score, but the numbers around 130 to 135 have been thrown out there. We had a taxidermist named Calvin Ferguson in St George do a European mount on him. Calvin does great work and we often stop by his place to have him do our skulls.
